Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Staffing, HR and payroll software and services provider Bond International Software has had a busy year or so dealing with its H2 2010 acquisitions on one hand (VGC and Strictly Education Solutions), and divestment on the other (Abacus) as its fights to recover from a difficult 2009/2010 period.
FY11 results (to December 31 2011) indicate that it is making progress with revenue from continuing operations up 30% to £36.8m (including a full 12 months revenue from its acquisitions), although underlying revenue rose a more modest 12%. Operating profit (before the amortisation of acquired intangible assets and exceptional items) came in at £2.59m, vs a loss of £0.1m in 2010. However, overall the company made a pre tax loss of £1.43m vs £1.46m for the previous year so there has been little change here.
There are some positive operational signs though. Even though performance is not back to pre-2009 levels, the recruitment division, including staffing, saw an improvement in Bond’s main markets of the UK and particularly US. This resulted in a 35% revenue rise, 15% of which was organic with the rest coming from a full year of VCG revenue. Even though Bond owes much of its growth to its acquisitions, the level of organic growth is encouraging. Recurring revenues rose 12% organically. Within this support revenues saw 3% organic growth with the major increase coming SaaS – 37% organic growth. As would be expected, the transition is having a negative effect on results and we expect this effect to continue through 2012.
The UK saw a 19% increase in recruitment revenue but was outstripped by the 54% growth level in the US. Looking at the HR and payroll division, revenue fell 2.7%. The outsourcing division saw revenue growth of 53% in the Strictly Education sub division but just 8% growth in Payroll Services.
The overall picture was mixed which is to be expected of a recovering vendor. There was organic growth but Bond owns more to its acquisitions than its native offerings and it remains cautious about 2012. It is looking to its emerging Asia-Pacific operations for 2012 opportunities.
